Innovations address unmet clinical needs

NHS staff were recognised for their inspirational ideas at the recent NHS Innovation Awards 2013, organised by Health Enterprise East, the NHS Innovation Hub for the East Midlands, East of England and North London. In the Medical Technology category, six entries were shortlisted and two awards were given – a first prize and a highly commended.

Safer injection

First prize went to a team from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust – Dr Emad Fawzy, Dr Peter Young, Dr Joseph Carter and Dr John Gibson – who won the P3 Medical Award for Medical Technology for SAFIRA (Safer Injection of Regional Anaesthesia). This improves safety and converts a two-operator technique to a single operator with an easier, more convenient and cost-effective method. The inventors said: “Current conventional regional anaesthesia practice requires two operators: an anaesthetist to ensure correct tip placement of the block needle and a second trained operator to inject the local anaesthetic solutions. An assessment of the ease of injection is made by the second operator and this operator feedback is currently used to deduce whether the needle tip is within the nerve sheath. Studies have shown that the second operator (usually an operating department practitioner in the UK) frequently applies high pressures during this stage which can cause damage to nerve fascicles.” With SAFIRA, the pump is loaded with a syringe of local anaesthetic and controlled by two buttons on the hub of the regional anaesthesia needle, enabling the anaesthetist to control both the injection and aspiration. This results in reduced incidence of nerve injury and provides the anaesthetist with better control, leading to a higher success rate and quicker procedure.